Excuse the Mess

A few months ago, we started letting Trey sit in “big boy” church with Daddy and Mommy. We decided to make his first service a special event by going shopping beforehand for “big boy” supplies. :) We picked out a little notebook, some cool markers that change colors and got his little new testament out for him to carry. Then we packed everything in his back-pack and set it out for church. Trey seemed to be happy about the idea, and really did surprisingly well…uh, especially after the first two or three services. ;)

Well, a couple of weeks ago, Wes and Addy were sick and had to stay home. Trey and I got dressed for church, packed his special back-pack and headed out the door. We were a couple of minutes late from making sure Daddy and Addison were settled and taken care of, but we made it in time for most of the service.

After we had been there for a few minutes, Pastor had everyone stand for the scripture reading. I started to have Trey stand, but since he already had things on his lap and was being quiet, I let him keep sitting – a mistake I will only make once. ;) I was standing there thinking quite proudly about my little angel of a son who was acting much older then his two years. I also thought about how he was doing a wonderful job of proving himself to the ushers who always stand behind the back rows!

I turned around just to admire the precious sight once more, when to my horror I saw Trey’s little face, covered in bright red streaks of marker! I don’t just mean a few lines – I really mean covered. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I grabbed the marker and sat down beside him to ask him about the situation. :)

I knew that we would be interrupting the service if we walked out. Since we were sitting on the back row anyway, I decided to just wait until prayer and slip out while everyone’s eyes were closed. ;) Surely no one would see us all the way in the back, right? Wrong. :)

Every few seconds it seemed that someone had to turn around either to cough, or stretch, or for some other such reason. But every single time they did, they just happened to catch a glimpse of Trey! They would immediately start laughing, which I thought was probably a bit more disturbing to the service than our quietly leaving would have been. After about the third sighting, I decided to take him out to wash his face.

I really didn’t want the usher who was standing by the door to see him, so when we got close, I took Trey’s face with my hand and very nonchalantly turned his head toward my body and wrapped the bottom of my skirt around his face. Um, yeah – that probably wasn’t obvious. :P I smiled sweetly at the usher to distract him as we scurried past him and out the door.

Pretty clever I thought! I washed Trey’s face with baby wipes, (lots of them!) it was slightly pinkish in color, but not bad. :) We made it back in for the remainder of the service and managed to stay out of any major catastrophes. I was so glad that only a few people had noticed what was going on…or so I thought…

As soon as the service was over, one of camera crew came to tell me that they had videoed the entire episode from the back of the auditorium…while the others sat in the booth to watch my expression. :) They had watched they whole thing unfold, beginning with Trey decorating his face, then my discovery of the painted face, my distraught looks – they had even followed us out the door – capturing my sneaky efforts to hide Trey’s face from the usher. :)

I did find out, much to my relief, that they didn’t actually record it! I don’t know though – that might have been a good one a few years down the road. ;)

This entry was posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 8:59 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.